


Talk to each other

by ocelot_core



Series: MGS Summer Games 2020 [1]
Category: Metal Gear
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, M/M, bb and kaz run a coffee shop, discussion of westerns and guns, ocelot is a college student who hangs out there
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-17
Updated: 2020-08-17
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:48:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25951681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ocelot_core/pseuds/ocelot_core
Summary: For MGS Summer Games 2020! ocelot_core for Ocelot Unit, Challenge F8, 20 points."John was not listening. Kaz was certain that branching out to tea would be good for business, and John thought he was probably right. To be honest, he didn’t really care what they sold as long as that blond kid kept coming in every afternoon after class.“Boss, are you even listening?”“Huh? Yeah, let’s do tea. Your problem, though.”"
Relationships: Big Boss/Ocelot (Metal Gear)
Series: MGS Summer Games 2020 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1884955
Comments: 2
Kudos: 16
Collections: Metal Gear Solid - Summer Games -2020





	Talk to each other

“Boss, I really need you to make a decision on this. Selling tea as well as coffee would expand our customer base and bring in even more money. MSF’s one of the trendiest coffee shops in the city, and we could be even more! And besides, I’ll handle everything, I’ll even choose the varieties of tea and train the staff. Come on, Boss, I just need you to sign off on it.”

John was not listening. Kaz was certain that branching out to tea would be good for business, and John thought he was probably right. To be honest, he didn’t really care what they sold as long as that blond kid kept coming in every afternoon after class.

“Boss, are you even listening?”

“Huh? Yeah, let’s do tea. Your problem, though.”

“Yeah, as though everything else isn’t. Thanks Boss.”

John grunted and Kaz went into the back to do whatever it was he did. The blond kid, John didn’t even know his name, was sat in his usual seat, in the corner by the window. He had a laptop open in front of him, but he hadn’t looked at it once, instead watching people pass by in the window.

The kid never seemed stressed, not like the other college students who camped out in the cafe before finals week. He came in pretty much every day at four, stayed for a couple of hours reading or working or just staring out the window, and then left fifteen minutes before closing. 

John wanted to talk to him, badly, but could never work out how to start a conversation. He’d tried to talk to Kaz about it, seeing as he was apparently so good at talking to people, but had just gotten teased for his trouble. Kaz had wanted to know who the lucky person was, wanted John to point him out in the shop. He gave up fairly quickly.

Now it was a quarter to six, when the kid usually left. Only he didn’t. He just sat looking out of the window, occasionally casting a glance at his laptop.

Ten to. Kaz would start grumbling if the kid didn’t leave soon. He had places to be, apparently. John gathered that ‘places’ was the French foreign exchange student he’d been flirting with that morning. John gathered his courage, and went over to the kid’s table.

“Hey, uh,” he said. Eloquent.

The kid just looked at him, eyebrows raised. Up close, John could see that his eyes were a bright gray, rather than blue he’d taken them for in the fluorescent light of the counter area. There had been a point to coming over here, but John lost it when he noticed how the growing twilight highlighted the sharpness of the kid’s cheekbones.

“What’s your name?” The question surprised John, even as it came out of his mouth.

“Adam,” the kid replied.

“Adam.” John repeated it, testing the sound of it in his mouth, before thoughts came back to his head with a clatter from the back room. “Uh, we’re closing in ten minutes.”

“I can leave if you want me to.” 

John didn’t want him to leave. The challenging expression on Adam’s face said that he didn’t want to anyway.

“Uh, you can stay, for a bit, if you want.” Eloquent again.

“Sure.”

John nodded, unsure what to say, then headed into the back room. The orange glow of the streetlights filtered into the darkness; Kaz hadn’t turned on the light. Papers and coffee mugs littered the tables. John was fairly sure Kaz got through almost as much coffee as all of their customers. He was just turning the computer off.

“Hey, do you mind if I leave a little early? Cecile needs a little impressing and I --”

“Sure, yeah. I’m gonna stay a little late anyway.”

“Ok… See you tomorrow, Boss.”

Kaz ducked out through the back door before John could change his mind. He locked it behind him.

John shuffled about the room, tidying papers and moving things around, waiting an appropriate amount of time before going back into the cafe.

The kid, Adam, was still seated in the window seat, looking curiously about the cafe as though he’d never seen it before. He caught John’s eye and smiled at him. With a sudden burst of courage, John walked over to him and sat at the other seat at the table. Adam closed his laptop as he sat down, and John noticed that it was covered in stickers of Clint Eastwood. Both waited for the other to break the silence.

“So… uh, you’re into westerns?” John thought that was a safe topic to ask about. He didn’t like asking college kids about their majors; they either didn’t want to talk about it or they did and it was business studies.

Adam shifted, putting his feet on the table to reveal the cowboy boots he was wearing. “Yep.”

“Hrngh, you know the gunfights are majorly inaccurate, right?”

“Sure, but it’s not about accuracy, it’s about the drama.”

Turned out the kid had some seriously in-depth opinions about westerns. John sat and listened for an hour to a lecture about the differences between Hollywood and spaghetti westerns and the qualities of different directors, actors and composers. Honestly, it was nice to listen to Adam talk. He explained things clearly and his arguments made sense. He asked John’s opinion on things, even though half the time all he had to go on was what Adam had told him. He asked him about guns too, and John was happy to reciprocate the lecture.

“Have you actually seen any of those movies?” Adam asked him as their conversation drew to a close.

No. “A few.”

“You should come over some time, I’d love to show you my collection.”

“Uh, yeah, sounds good.”

“Good. I guess I’ll see you tomorrow, then.”

“I guess you will.”

Adam smiled. John smiled back.

Adam packed up his things and headed out of the door with a wave as John locked it behind him. He took the cash out of the register and put it in the safe in the back room. He grabbed his jacket and the back door keys and let himself out. He felt as though something new had started, as he walked home.

He wondered if Adam was into guys.


End file.
